We keep hearing that the recession is over, and yet, for many companies and individuals, it sure doesn't feel as though it's over. Rising markets and positive comments from leaders aside, there are still a lot of firms struggling with declining revenues and a lot of folks looking for jobs.
There is some evidence, though, that things are looking up in the channel. If the big distributors are bellwethers for channel players of all sizes, then the financial picture for partners really is improving -- or should be soon.
Synnex, not exactly the biggest of distributors but still a player, clocked in this week with a very good fiscal third quarter that beat analysts' expectations. The company's year-over-year quarterly revenues dipped but only slightly (by about 2 percent), and that passes for good news these days. Profits actually rose year-over-year in Q3, and that's just plain good news.
Analyst are making positive noises about Tech Data, too, which suffered a revenue shortfall in its Q2 but obliterated analysts' expectations with its earnings report back in August. Tech Data folks themselves say that they see the market stabilizing somewhat in the Americas, and Wall Street types are looking for a better-than-expected Q3 from the distribution giant.
Of course, a couple of mostly positive -- or, at least, not negative -- quarterly earnings reports from a couple of channel companies doesn't mean that happy days are here again. (Happy days like the ones we all knew for the better part of the last 20 years or so seem unlikely to return.) But these upbeat reports could mean that, along with Wall Street (we hope), financials in the channel have hit bottom and are bouncing up again.
Or, we could be setting ourselves up for another bubble and more disappointment and pain. But this recovery -- if we're actually in one -- seems to have a slow-and-steady feel, not the rocket-fueled feel of a boom. Then again, we at RCPU remain largely pessimistic about the long-term prospects for the economy as a whole. But, hey, we don't claim to be experts (although we seem to remember some "experts" being the folks who got us into such trouble in the first place).
We digress. For the time being, good news for distributors seems like -- and really should be -- good news for the channel as a whole. Let's hope it is. To quote (directly, we think) Canadian soft-rock legend Anne Murray, we sure could use a little good news today.
How's your financial picture looking? What do you think the prospects are for your business and for the economy? Send your thoughts to [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/24/2009 at 1:22 PM0 comments
We've gone on and on in this space about how Microsoft should focus on core technologies and let some of the fringe stuff that's making the company bloated and inefficient go. Well, Microsoft said this week that both Windows Live and Windows Mobile are unprofitable.
Yes, that's right. Unprofitable, as in not taking away from the bottom line. Now, Windows Live, as confusing as it is as a brand, seems pretty essential to Microsoft in the coming cloud computing fight against Google and others. But really, what is the point of Windows Mobile? Does Microsoft absolutely have to be in this space? Microsoft can still sell apps for mobile devices even if they don't run on Windows Mobile, right? Live might be do or die, but Mobile? We're not so sure.
Well, none of this talk really matters because Microsoft is very much pushing ahead with its Windows Mobile plans. The company says that there will be 30 Windows Mobile 6.5 devices out this year. Whether they'll help turn a profit for Microsoft is anybody's guess.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/24/2009 at 1:22 PM1 comments
Intel has had its eyes on the software market for a while, and it took another step toward becoming a real software vendor this week with the introduction of a new version of its Moblin operating system.
Linux-based Moblin could end up all over the place, from smartphones to netbooks. So, that's more competition (potentially) for Windows -- this time from the company that helped build the Microsoft empire (while also building its own).
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/24/2009 at 1:22 PM0 comments
Two things today: Usually, as the days lose daylight and the summer slips into fall, the news cycle starts turning again in a serious way. We haven't noticed that to be the case so much this year, perhaps because much of the technology world is anticipating the release of Windows 7 (even though there's probably nothing about it we don't know). The bigger vendors have been relatively quiet so far this fall.
That was the first thing. Here's the second: Here at RCPU, we're technology generalists, meaning that we fit the old expression, to some extent, about being jacks of all trades and masters of none. It's worth mentioning, however, that we've mastered some areas of technology over the years more than we've mastered others. Your editor has a penchant for ERP, cloud computing, security and a few other categories. But there are times when we'll admit to our lack of expertise, and this is one of them.
Citrix this week finally made generally available a product that's been in the hands of lots of users for months, Citrix NetScaler VPX. It is, according to the company, "the industry's only leading application delivery and load balancing solution that is available as a virtual appliance. So, there you go.
We're not above admitting at this point that our expertise in such a product category is pretty limited, so we're not going to spend a lot of time critiquing this offering or discussing the importance of it. But it does sound important (especially at a relatively slow time for news), and Sunil Potti, vice president at Citrix Systems, spent some time on the phone with RCPU yesterday going over some usage scenarios that the company does a better job of explaining than we could. So, courtesy of Citrix's PR folks, here they are, from the company's press release:
"Making Shared Services Work in Cloud and Enterprise Datacenters
NetScaler VPX enables next generation multi-tenancy architectures bringing application-specific and tenant-specific acceleration, security and traffic management close to the application in a flexible software tier, complementing NetScaler MPX hardware appliances at the data center edge that are handling large-scale services common to all tenants.
On-demand Load Balancing and Application Delivery
For the first time, industry-leading application delivery and load balancing can be provisioned as an on-demand service by cloud and hosting providers seeking to enhance the elasticity and profitability of their offerings. Datacenter architectures are freed from the inherent rigidity of appliance-only solutions.
Moving NetScaler Upstream in the Application Lifecycle
NetScaler VPX makes critical application optimization, security and management technology capabilities readily accessible to development teams so that application delivery can be baked into the application. Additionally, it addresses thorny configuration support and change management issues by allowing evaluation of application delivery policies in test and stage environments, before promoting into production environments."
What's really interesting to us is that this product comes with its own little partner program, dubbed the Citrix Ready Open Networking Program. The program is open to all sorts of partners, from solution providers and hosting partners to ISVs and platform partners. Oracle is the big apps partner for the moment, and conspicuously missing from the list of players in the Open Networking Programis Microsoft, generally a big buddy of Citrix.
But Potti said that Citrix should be able to snare Microsoft some time within the next few months, thereby forming an alliance that will allow the two virtualization chums to "promote Hyper-V against VMware with a value-added services stack," in Potti's words.
Now, that we get. And, for Microsoft partners -- especially those who have bought into the company's virtualization vision -- any development that helps combat VMware is a positive one. So, maybe we understand all we need to know about this product after all.
Have any comments on Citrix, NetScaler VPX (maybe you've used it and can shed some light on it for us), Microsoft, VMware, virtualization or anything else? Send them to [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/23/2009 at 1:22 PM0 comments
We don't want to give anything away or anything, but let's just say that the November issue of Redmond might just reveal the massive popularity of the Microsoft System Center product line, which the company updated late last week.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/23/2009 at 1:22 PM0 comments
Is this the end? Really? Are the bad times over? PC sales were down again in calendar Q2 2009, but there's -- gasp! -- optimism on the horizon. Well, at RCPU, we'll believe it when we see it (we're still pretty pessimistic about the economy as a whole), but we're cheering for that recovery.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/23/2009 at 1:22 PM0 comments
And it's goodbye to ISC's flagship product, Star-P, but hello to a bunch of ISC technology finding its way into Redmond's wares. And, in case you were wondering, ISC is (or was) based in Waltham, Mass., your editor's current residence and an all-around fine city.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/23/2009 at 1:22 PM1 comments
Oh, this ERP business is complicated, and with Microsoft, it's really, really complicated. Sure, Microsoft Dynamics might be cheaper and easier to use and implement than most -- probably all -- of its competitors, but Redmond's insistence on offering four different ERP suites under the Dynamics name leads to a marketing alphabet soup that even the biggest enterprise software fan might have trouble keeping straight.
For the purpose of this post, though, forget about NAV, SL and GP. We're going to talk here about AX, the suite with by far the most violent name in the bunch and, if we're honest, the mothership of Dynamics that Microsoft hopes will lead the product line up market and into serious competition with SAP, Oracle and the other ERP titans.
Dynamics folks in Redmond classify AX as the suite for the "upper-midmarket," or companies with a few thousand employees and dozens or possibly hundreds of ERP users, said Crispin Read, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics ERP, on a recent trip to RCPU's sunlit headquarters in Framingham, Mass. Those kinds of companies tend to play in specific vertical industries (more so than, say, a huge, global corporation would), meaning they need a lot of customization to actually make their ERP systems work for them, their customers and their suppliers.
"Customers are looking to acquire vertical solutions," Read said. "Right now, what companies are looking for is apps that are designed for their verticals. There's little appetite for customization. It's difficult to keep up to date."
So, Microsoft's not going to try -- not on its own, at least -- to keep AX up to date. Redmond today announced three acquisitions of intellectual property aimed at creating vertical versions of AX and moving the suite into targeted industries. Buying vertical functionality and offering pre-customized versions of AX is an easier and more workable approach, said Kees Hertogh, director of product management for Microsoft Dynamics AX, than trying to bake a bunch of home-grown vertical capabilities into one giant AX pie.
"Try to capture too many verticals, you end up with spaghetti," Hertogh told RCPU in a brightly painted Framingham conference room. (By the way, is anybody else hungry?) "It's like concrete -- once it hardens, it's very hard to change."
So, in order to maintain a pasta-free diet, Microsoft is buying IP from Fullscope Inc. for process manufacturing, from Computer Generated Solutions Inc. for professional services, and from LS Retail EHF (talk about alphabet soup) and something called To-Increase Denmark A/S (your guess is as good as ours) for the retail industry.
It's worth noting that all four companies that are selling IP to Microsoft are Gold Certified Partners, and Read and Hertogh stressed during their visit with RCPU that Redmond will continue to rely on partners to customize AX for customers. The opportunities are immense, they say.
"Creating a vertical solution for an upper-midmarket company, there's a lot of work to do," Read said. "We don't want to provide all these vertical solutions. We want our partners to develop them, and it's a lot of work."
It's a lot of work that AX partners surely wouldn't mind having right now. Read said that Microsoft is focusing on selling AX into retail, distribution, manufacturing, professional services and the public sector, and today's announcements reflect the goals the company has for targeting some of those industries.
So, Dynamics partners, there you go -- you have your marching orders. Focus on AX for vertical industries, and the only way is up. Maybe next time, Microsoft will want to stir some of your IP into its Dynamics alphabet soup.
What's your take on how Microsoft is running its Dynamics business? Have you had success in specific verticals, and if so, which ones? Tell all at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/22/2009 at 1:22 PM2 comments
It's just a little exchange of bills among Texans. No big deal, really. With the PC market slumping, Dell has decided to get into the services business, quickly, by forking over nearly $4 billion to buy Perot Systems. So, HP and IBM (and some really large Microsoft partners), there's a new services competitor on the horizon, and it's ridin' straight out of Texas.
Speaking of Texas, how about Dallas's own Ross Perot, huh? He might have abandoned his presidential ambitions long ago, but dig this paragraph in this AP story:
"Former presidential candidate H. Ross Perot Sr., now 79, serves as chairman emeritus of Perot Systems, which he founded in 1988. He earlier had made a fortune from founding Electronic Data Systems Corp. in 1962 and selling the company to General Motors Corp. in a 1984 deal worth $2.5 billion. Hewlett-Packard bought EDS last year for $13.9 billion."
Now that's a guy who knows how to scare up some business.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/22/2009 at 1:22 PM0 comments
You might want to get this quick fix installed before somebody actually does attack Vista or Windows Server 2008. Then again, how much harm could anybody really do to Vista that Microsoft hasn't done already? Oh, we're just kidding...mostly. (The Vista jokes will cease when Windows 7 makes its grand debut. Maybe.)
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/22/2009 at 1:22 PM0 comments
Mary Jo Foley, Redmond magazine columnist and Microsoft follower par excellence, says it could be...along with some sort of Microsoft-branded phone.
So, are we really going to go through this whole tablet thing again? Apple's headed down that road, as well. I guess Microsoft and Apple are just determined to make us like tablet computing. Here at RCPU, we don't really see the appeal. But the whole tablet notion goes well with the touch-computing elements of Windows 7 (also not appealing to us), we suppose. For now, we'll stick with the netbook. It'll take some convincing to get us to do otherwise.
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/22/2009 at 1:22 PM1 comments
Those who would sound the death knell for Microsoft got another shot of false hope this week when the U.S. federal government revealed that it would embark on an ambitious cloud computing effort.
Already, the feds have an app store up and running at Apps.gov, and national CIO Vivek Kundra is talking about moving government IT out of the '80s (if we're generous) and into the cloud. Reports the San Francisco Chronicle (from the link in the first paragraph of this entry):
The goal of the broader cloud project, which could take 10 years to complete, is to overhaul a system in which each agency assembles its own system of underutilized hardware and weaves together patchworks of software that are expensive to maintain and upgrade.
"We've been building data center after data center, acquiring application after application, and frankly what it's done is drive up the cost of technology immensely across the board," Kundra said. "What we need to be able to do is find a more innovative path in addressing these problems."
Already, the Chronicle and a host of other sources we've checked out have identified the government's cloudy forecast as a (potential) big win for Salesforce.com and Google -- which, for now, it might be, given that both companies have a bunch of apps in the feds' app store.
And, of course, that means that the vultures are circling around Microsoft again, talking about how the lumbering old software elephant is behind its competitors in the cloud and how this new federal cloud initiative could be another step toward the end of Microsoft's industry dominance. Quoth the Chronicle once more:
Traditional software companies are also getting into cloud computing, if slowly, but the mere fact that a customer the size of the federal government is rethinking its approach to technology could pose serious risks for leading software companies, said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.
"They could end up doing most of their business with Google and not doing it through Oracle or Microsoft," he said.
Now, we respect Rob Enderle immensely, and we don't consider him a Microsoft-hater at all. It's also important to note that he qualifies his statement with the word "could." But let's back up a second here. Aren't folks jumping the gun a bit on declaring Microsoft dead in the cloud? Sure, Microsoft is behind Google, Amazon, Salesforce.com (in online CRM, anyway) and maybe a few others right now in terms of cloud computing. But Redmond isn't ignoring the cloud, as we know from Microsoft's work on the Azure platform and the fact that Ray Ozzie holds a top executive position within the company.
Besides, the Chronicle article mentioned that the project could take 10 years to complete. Ten years? That's an absolute eternity in this industry. (Seriously, think about 1999 for a minute.) Does anybody really think that Microsoft will be completely shut out of a decade-long government project (which, given that it's a government project, will probably end up taking 15 years to finish and will go way over budget)? We don't, and Microsoft partners shouldn't, either.
We at RCPU are believers in the cloud, and we know that it's here today and isn't going away. We like it that way, and the feds' project, including the new app store, actually sounds really worthwhile. But even we recognize that cloud computing is still in the relatively early stages of evolution and that nobody has yet become to cloud computing what Microsoft is to the desktop operating system.
Microsoft-haters, don't crow too loudly just yet. We're not saying that Google and Salesforce.com (or a combination thereof) won't end up dominating cloud computing. We're just saying that Microsoft's not out of this game yet, regardless of who's stocking the federal app store right now.
How competitive do you think Microsoft will be in the cloud? What's your take on the government's cloud initiative? Send your thoughts to [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 09/17/2009 at 1:22 PM2 comments